On the topic of violence, Nouri's flunky Muqdad al-Sharifi was insisting to AFPyesterday that the protests were a security threat. Today the gabby al-Sharifi is telling AP and anyone else who will listen (or anyone who'll practice stenography) that the electoral commission are receiving death threats from Sunni areas. Code for "Sunnis be crazy." It's good to see that al-Sharifi's not interested in even pretending to be objective. Better the reality of Nouri and his flunkies be exposed early on. Interestingly enough, he's now just "a member of the election commission" -- that's how AP bills him today. (He is actually, as AFP noted, "the chief electoral officer of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission.") While Nouri and his cronies try to dismiss and attack the protesters, All Iraq News notes Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, has issued a call for the legitimate demands of the protesters to be heeded. The outlet notes that al-Hakim has been in contact with some of the southern tribal leaders and they are calling for the protesters to be listened to. Al Rafidayn notes that al-Hakim declared that the protests are a Constitutional right and that the government must listen to the legimate demands. Meanwhile Kitabat reports that protesters are being targeted for assassination and that in Baghdad alone 13 protests have been assassinate.

Al Mada notes the sit-in in Mousl continues and that belongings of the protesters were stolen from their tents. Sheikh Saeed Lafi states that Friday's demonstration will rally the people and see tribal leaders and elders taking part in the demonstration and calling for the Federal Court to honor the mandates passed by Parliament (limiting the Speaker of Parliament and Prime Minister to two terms only -- as the president is already limited). The Sheikh notes that the Federal Court is biased towards Nouri and under the control of Nouri's Dawa political party. He also states that it is clear that Iran is influecing events in Iraq. Kitabat adds that Friday's slogan is "NO to the Tyrannical Ruler." The protesters state that Iraq is headed towards the abyss and they will not assist in the making of a new dictator or in helping the dicator exploit the people.

Like the protests, questions surrounding a billion dollar deal just won't go away. From the December 26th snapshot:October 9th,
Nouri was strutting across the world stage as he inked a $4.2 billion
weapons deal with Russia. The deal is now iffy if not off (an Iraqi
delegation went to Russia at the start of the month to see if the deal
could be salvaged) and it went down in charges of corruption. Among
those said to be implicated in the corruption is Nouri's own son. All Iraq News reports
that State of Law is attempting to remove Nouri's name from the list of
those Parliament is investigating for the corruption in that deal. In
addition, Al Mada reports that Nouri is refusing to answer questions from the Parliament relating to that arms deal.

You may remember that when the rumors started to really swirl, Nouri and his cronies turned on Ali al-Dabbagh, Nouri's spokesperson. Thing is, they turned to late. Ali al-Dabbagh had already seen the writing on the wall and left Iraq. Not before making it clear that he knew a great deal about the Russian arms deal -- and repeatedly maintaining that he hadn't made a cent off it. He's currently in the UAE. All Iraq News reports today that Ali's gotten chatty with the Russian press. Who made money off the corrupt deal? Ali says it was Nouri's advisors and Nouri's son.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.